Horror Icon Cast As ZOOM In THE FLASH

Candyman actor Tony Todd has joined the cast of Flash season 2 as the voice of Zoom, according to Variety. Tom Cavanagh's Harrison Wells may have secretly been the Reverse Flash for all of Flash season 1, but when season 2 rolls around, there will be more than a few questions about the enigmatic villain known as Zoom. One question that's now been answered, though, is how Zoom will be portrayed.

“Last year, with the Reverse-Flash, we just modulated Tom Cavanagh’s voice, and this year we wanted to do something a little bit different,” said executive producer Andrew Kreisberg. “Part of the mystery of the season is who or what is underneath the Zoom outfit, and so we wanted to do something like James Earl Jones as Darth Vader — this iconic voice coming out of this mask. Last year, we thought of the Reverse-Flash as a speed warrior; this year, Zoom is like a speed demon, and no one does demon-voice better than Tony Todd.”

Kreisberg went on to describe Zoom's new look in Flash season 2, saying it will be much more organic than the previous version of the suit. “The Zoom outfit is much more organic than the Reverse-Flash suit. In a way, it’s hard to tell if it is a suit or alive… There’s no skin showing, for all you know there’s a robot underneath, or dark energy.”

Credit: The CW

“For us, the best villains are the ones who don’t have megalomaniacal ‘I want to rule the world’ motivations,” Kreisberg said of Zoom’s goals. “Last year, the Reverse-Flash had a very simple goal which was, ‘I just want to go home, and if people need to die or cities need to get wasted for me to get that, so be it.’ And Zoom has a very similar, personal goal this season… simple and easy to understand, and very primal. And just as with Wells last year, Zoom doesn’t care who gets hurt or what gets destroyed in the service of him getting his goal.”

As for Zoom's true identity, Kreisberg says the mystery will be central to Flash season 2.

“We have to service the entire audience, both the fans and the non-fans, and I think we’ve shown up until this point a great deal of respect and reverence for the source material, so that we always feel like we’re fulfilling the comic book fans’ expectations while also not spoon-feeding them stuff directly from the comics. So the story of Zoom and who and what he is… hopefully comic book fans will be happy because we’ve come up with a clever way to spin the tale, but that also makes it exciting for the people who aren’t as familiar with the comics and are just enjoying the show on its own terms.”

Tony Todd is no stranger to voicing DC Comics characters, having provided voices for LEGO DC Comics Superheroes, Young Justice, and Batman: The Brave And The Bold.